Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Ethical conduct at the municipal government level is expected to be an issue that the mayor and councillors give special attention this year.

Mayor Mark Heyck says ethics will be an important aspect of how council moves forward, particularly since the ethics of municipal governance has received such attention.

"The public's view of politicians is not always a pleasant one," he said in a recent interview. "We are entrusted in making decisions on behalf of our residents and that is a very important responsibility. We have a duty to conduct our business at the highest of standards."

As is standard for the first meeting of every term, council reviewed and re-adopted the Ethical Principles and Rules of Conduct for Members of Yellowknife City Council in November. That policy sets out guidelines on how members should behave while holding public office. The document deals with everything from how councillors can complain about the ethical conduct of other councillors, to how to maintain the integrity of office through personal behaviour, to what to do if a councillor receives a gift worth more than $100, or what to do if a councillor is charged with criminal behaviour.

"I think it is worthwhile reviewing those types of documents periodically, given some of the issues we have seen across the country with municipal elected officials," said Heyck. "I think it is good to see if those types of documents need to be strengthened, updated and see what other municipalities are doing in that regard."

An outbreak of municipal ethical issues across Canada have gained much media attention since November when Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was found guilty of violating Ontario's Municipal Conflict of Interest Act and Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay was forced to resign in light of allegations of corruption stemming from the Charbonneau Inquiry. Mayor Joe Fontana of London, Ont., was also under criminal investigation for using federal funds to pay for his son's wedding, although he has since retained power following a vote by that city council.

Yellowknife's council approved its guidelines in November without making amendments but some municipal politicians said they are open to making amendments at any time.

Coun. Bob Brooks said ethical issues are less likely to arise in Yellowknife compared to other areas of the country because there has been such high turnover among elected members, including in the last election. He said new councillors, by their nature, tend to pay more attention to ethics.

"When you have such a brand new body like we do now, they want to make sure everything is done right, above board and that they don't get into bad habits," he said.

In contrast, he said if the same council was sitting for 10 or 20 years, more problems may arise because they get used to old processes and ways of doing things at the city.

"In our case, since we have had changeovers over the last number of councils, we have to keep doing new strategic plans, which includes new reviews of the code of conduct."

The original ethical principles document, Brooks said, was actually adopted in the 1990s by a new council looking to address old behaviour patterns, which by today's standards are unethical.

"In the old days it was quite common to see the councillors or the old mayor drunk under the table at the Gold Range," said Brooks, who is serving his seventh term on council. "Is that appropriate? No. In fact a lot of the ethical principles, I think, were born around consumption of alcohol."

On another ethical front, Heyck would like to see council focus on "democratic reform" going into council's strategic planning session later this month. Specifically, he wants to see a strengthening of the municipal elections bylaw, which was created in August, so that candidates are more open and transparent during election campaigns.

"We (the last council) had run out of time leading up to the election in terms of putting in some provisions into the elections bylaw related to things like elections financing and disclosure of contributions," the mayor said.

Though he has yet to release a financial statement surrounding his mayoral campaign, Heyck says he will be releasing all information - including his expenses and contributions - early this year.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.